​A new ward being built as part of a £4m project to bring King’s Lynn’s
specialist adult acute mental health services onto one central site is to be
named after a sea vegetable for which Norfolk is renowned.

The ward of 16 single ensuite rooms at Chatterton House in Goodwins Road, which
will replace Churchill Ward on the Fermoy Unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital,
King’s Lynn, will be called “Samphire Ward”.

The name was chosen by a panel comprising Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation
Trust (NSFT) staff, service users and a representative of West Norfolk Clinical
Commissioning Group (CCG).

Pauline Davies, NSFT’s West Norfolk Locality Manager, said: “There was a strong
theme of nature in many of the suggestions which helped the panel to
unanimously agree that the name of the ward will be ‘Samphire’.

“Samphire is a popular local delicacy and, also, people local to King’s Lynn
will remember a character well-known as ‘The Samphire Man’.

“As well as building a new ward, the project to transform and improve mental
healthcare in west Norfolk includes refurbishing existing outpatient facilities
and expanding the range of services available to support patients within the
community.

“Work started in May and is progressing at pace. The contractors are scheduled
to finish in about mid-March next year after which the facilities will be
commissioned to come into use later that spring.”

Helen Nicholls, an assistant psychologist on Churchill Ward, working with
service users on the ward, led a project to find ways to make the new ward less
institutional, more therapeutic and easier to navigate.

She made suggestions about colour, texture and sound after researching how the
ward environment could be developed to help service users to remain calm and
orientated, reduce confusion and distress. For example, in order to help
service users find their way around, the unit’s male corridor will be painted
pale turquoise and the female corridor pale lilac.

The new unit will offer state-of-the-art, ensuite single room facilities for men
and women with a variety of mental health conditions, such as depression and
bipolar disorder.
NSFT has contracted SEH French, a local construction company, to carry out the
work for the whole project. Once complete, it will integrate all adult mental health
services in King’s Lynn onto the site of Chatterton House, making them easier
for people to access.

This means that people who have been discharged following inpatient care will
be able to return to the same building to access community services, offering
all-important continuity of care.

The exceptions will be services which are delivered in people’s own homes or
places of residence, Wellbeing Norfolk & Waveney and the Psychiatric
Liaison Service, which is provide from the Emergency Department (A&E) at
the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The King’s Lynn Crisis Resolution Home Treatment (CRHT) team, which provides
intensive support for people during a mental health crisis in order to prevent
hospital admissions and give support to carers, which is currently based at the
Fermoy Unit, will transfer to Chatterton House.

A new Section 136 suite is being purpose-built at Chatterton House to provide a
safe place where people in a mental health crisis who have come into contact
with the police can receive care. The modern, state-of-the-art facility will
replace the existing suite at the Fermoy Unit, with the annual running costs
being met by West Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

Once the project is complete, “alternatives to admission” services for service
users will continue to be developed, including day treatment services for
people who are well enough to return home but still need some further support.

The Chatteron House plans were developed in consultation with service users,
NSFT clinicians and West Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), working in
collaboration with Norfolk and Waveney Sustainability and Transformation
Partnership (STP). The project was made possible following a successful bid for
£4m in funding from NHS England.

Caption: The project team in the new day area, which will be spacious and therapeutic